LAS VEGAS – Colby Covington is blowing up the promotion for perhaps the biggest fight of his MMA career, but it looks like he won’t get any pay points for watching his main match.
The former UFC light heavyweight title contender faces Jorge Masvidal in the headliner of Saturday’s UFC 272. The event takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Covington (16-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) and Masvidal (35-15 MMA, 12-8 UFC) were former friends and teammates, but after an argument over alleged unfulfilled payments by Covington to the Masvidal coach, the two became angry enemies. Their enmity has become one of the biggest rivalries in martial arts today.
A big battle leading a pay-per-view event to the UFC usually means a big paycheck, but Covington has revealed that he won’t get part of the pay-per-sale sales cut.
“I gave up paying to watch,” Covington told reporters on Wednesday’s media day. “I don’t care about paying for this match. This is a personal battle. I want to come and do a UFC show and show that I deserve to be a UFC fighter for life. ”
The vast majority of those paid to watch the UFC are led by championship fights. Very few battles in the past have led to a pay-per-view event. These rare exceptions include very limited fighters such as MMA stars Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz. Covington v. Masvidal are now joining this select group that led the UFC pay-per-view while the titleless match.
After losing the title fight to champion Kamaru Usman, Covington says he has reduced his salary for this match against Masvidal. The “chaos” is along with the reduction of pay and the lack of pay points for watching due to the bad blood with Masvidal and his desire to enter the octagon with him.
“It’s just a personal rivalry, it’s not about the money,” Covington said. “I did not come here to fight for money. I reduced my salary, I was not interested in the money for this battle. It is about settling a blood feud.
“It was a long time. This person keeps it as long as he can, until there is no chance or no other option. This was the greatest opportunity he could get to pay his child support and pay child support, so of course he had to come and get his lost salary.